According to historical records, in the fifth year of Yongzheng (1727), Cao Xueqin's father, Cao Zhi, was robbed of his property because of the crime of "harassing a post station", and the government, which had been painstakingly managed for 58 years by several generations, changed hands several times. The Qing court appointed Sui Hede, the minister of internal affairs, to take over Cao Zhi's position, and later awarded the Cao family's property to Sui Hede for enjoyment. After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, according to the records of Cao family archives, "the former residence of Cao family is the former site of Cao family". It is said that Sui Hede once rebuilt the first house of Cao family, which may be the origin of "Sui Garden". It's a pity that this "Suiyuan" was listed not long ago, and Sui Hede was also deprived of his property because of corruption and bribery. Soon, Jiangning magistrate Yuan Mei took a fancy to this property. After thirteen years of Qianlong (1748), he paid a lot of money to buy Sui Garden. However, he felt that the layout was not to his liking, so he carried out a makeover construction, changed Sui to Sui, and wrote a famous poem "Suiyuan Poetry" here, which greatly increased the reputation of this place.
According to textual research, the geographical location of Suiyuan Park built by Yuan Mei in that year is on the west side of Guangzhou Road, starting from Ganheyan and Qingdao Road in the east and reaching Suijiacang and Wulongtan in the west. Now there is a Suiyuan Street between Qingdao Road and Shanghai Road, which shows that the scale of Suiyuan in the past was quite large! ? These statements can be said to be well-founded, which is more in line with the change of "Cao's former site". As far as Cao Xueqin is concerned, he spent his childhood in his hometown of Jiangning (now Nanjing), and he still remembers the romantic and prosperous scene. Later, when he wrote A Dream of Red Mansions, it was easy to regard Sui Garden, which belonged to him, as the prototype of the Grand View Garden, which was handy and innovative, thus achieving good artistic effects. ? However, Mr. Zhou, a famous expert in the study of A Dream of Red Mansions, disagrees with the above views. He said in "A New Proof of a Dream of Red Mansions": "Yuan's words are groundless, and the so-called empty talk is nonsense." This view of Mr. Zhou not only denies Yuan Mei, but also denies the statement of harmony. ?
The second way of saying it: The prototype of "Grand View Garden" is not the old "companion garden" in Nanjing, but Beijing. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, Hu Dayong provided a document that the Grand View Garden should be in Beijing. In the preface of his poem "Getting Ancient Fragrance in the North after Rain", he wrote: "It's unheard of to visit the old site of the Grand View Garden of a Dream of Red Mansions and meet the old lady." Gu Xiang lives in Beijing and writes to Hu Dayong, reporting the news of his visit to the former site of Daguan Garden. Unfortunately, he didn't say where he was in Beijing. Later, Xie Daolong clearly pointed out in his poem notes that "ten branches of the sea, or the site of the Grand View Garden". In modern times, when Xu Ke compiled "Clearing Banknotes", he affirmed: "In the northwest of the capital, there is the former site of the Grand View Garden, with trees, stones and water, which is still faintly discernible." ?
In the first 18 episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, Xue Baochai wrote a poem with seven rhymes. There is a clue in the poem: "A square garden was built in the west of the imperial city". Following this clue, I searched all over Jingxi and found the prototype of "Grand View Garden"-"Cui Jinyuan" in Gongwangfu. Mr. Zhou put forward this viewpoint in "A New Proof of A Dream of Red Mansions" published by 1953, which was echoed by some experts and scholars. 1962 Teacher Wu Liu published an article "Where is the Grand View Garden in Beijing? He believes that "Gongwangfu is the site of the Grand View Garden". For example, there is a theater in the back garden here, which means it is a building in the early Qing Dynasty. Mr. Pu Lian, the Queen of the Palace, is a famous painter, and the house he lives in is a building in Yongzheng era. Of course, this place is not enough. Mr. Wu also said enlighteningly: Anyone who has been to Gongwangfu can find Xiaoxiang Pavilion and Hongyiyuan here as long as they follow the Grand View Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions, and even the "back building" of An and the "Flower Branch Lane" where Jia Lian secretly married his second sister are not difficult to find. They all have their own advantages. ?
Gongwangfu, a famous imperial palace in Qing Dynasty, is located in the northwest of Beijing, with Shichahai on the left and Houhaiyan on the back. It turns out that this place is not a palace, but a private residence of Qing ministers and Yong ying. It was founded in the forty-first year of Qianlong (1776) and completed in the fifty years of Qianlong (1785). It lasted nine years and was one of the best mansions in Beijing at that time. Later, he Tuan was put in prison and his property was confiscated. This mansion became the palace of Lin Yong, seventeen sons of Qianlong. Xianfeng two years (1852), Daoguang Liuzi? NFDB 1？ Moved in again. In the 30th year of Daoguang (1850), it was named Prince Gong, and since then it has become the "Prince Gong Palace". Since the Peace Corps, Gongwangfu has been repaired and rebuilt to varying degrees, but overall it has not exceeded its original scale, layout and shape. ?
The "Cui Jinyuan" in Gongwangfu is really like the "Grand View Garden" in A Dream of Red Mansions, but judging from the history of this palace, it can't be the prototype of the "Grand View Garden". Because Cao Xueqin died as early as the 28th year of Qianlong (1763), it was not until 13 years after his death that the regiment built this private house (later Gongwangfu). How could Cao Xueqin describe it as the prototype of the Grand View Garden? Of course, I don't know that the "Grand View Garden" was copied during the Tongzhi period. It should be said that the "Cui Jinyuan" in Gongwangfu is modeled after the "Grand View Garden", which is by no means Cao Xueqin's description of the "Grand View Garden" in A Dream of Red Mansions! ?
According to records, during the Tongzhi period, Prince Gong once carried out a large-scale renovation. When rebuilding this garden, Prince Gong intended to design and build it according to the artistic conception of the Grand View Garden, such as "Crossing the Crane Bridge", "Qin's Pavilion", "Painting Boat" and "Huanyun Residence", and most of them copied Cao Xueqin's "design". Because the book A Dream of Red Mansions was widely circulated at that time, it was not only "rewarded for the director of famous ministers", but also loved by Empress Dowager Cixi. Prince Gong is a famous minister with a strong cultural foundation. He can't be ignorant of A Dream of Red Mansions. For the "Grand View Garden" in A Dream of Red Mansions, Prince Gong yearned for it and imitated it to amuse himself, thus turning the description on paper into reality. Because Gongwangfu has high specifications and is very close to Rongguofu, it is easy for people to equate the two. In Beijing, only this Wang Fu Garden is closest to the mansion in A Dream of Red Mansions, so people regard it as the prototype of the Grand View Garden. ?
The third statement: Beijing has no prototype of the Grand View Garden. There is such a passage in the second episode of A Dream of Red Mansions: "Looking through the wall, the halls and pavilions inside are still magnificent; Even the trees and stones in the back garden still smell dry and humid. " This is what Jia Yucun said to Leng Zixing when he introduced Nanjing Guo Rong Mansion and its gardens. Therefore, Zhi Yanzhai criticized: "Why don't you use the word' West' in the last word? I am afraid that my husband will cry, so I don't need the word' west'. " In this way, the "Grand View Garden" in the owner's mind is the West Garden in Cao Xueqin's home in the past. ?
In fact, A Dream of Red Mansions is only a literary work, not a history book. When creating this masterpiece, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions must have "integrated" and "imagined" many gardens and landscapes, and it is not necessary to have a real reference to the Grand View Garden. As Mr. Wang said in the novel "A New Story": "The Grand View Garden is based on the Cao family's courtyard, and the Cao family's mansion, including Beijing's Zhiyuan, Zhifu, Ningfu, Yangfu and Sufu, is the blueprint of the Grand View Garden. At the same time, all the gardens visited by Cao Xueqin before his death can be embedded in this castle in the air. The so-called "grand view" can also be said to be "a collection of achievements". You can't be too honest, but it's not illusory. " ? Mr. Cao's remarks are very reasonable. Look at the strange scenery of the "Grand View Garden", which is rare from ancient times to today. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a fairy house. However, it is only the "Grand View Garden" in the mind of the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, and it is a typical creation that highly summarizes China's garden art. In reality, there is no prototype of the "Grand View Garden".